Dash Cam

[TodFitch]

About 5 years ago I was in a collision with a vehicle that ran a red light. Fortunately I gathered enough information at the scene to prove the other driver was at fault and their insurance covered the repairs to my car. But I realized how close I came to a “he said, she said” situation so I bought a dash cam for my daily driver.

 

As time as marched on, I began to realize that I feel unprotected if I am driving a vehicle without a dash cam so I finally decided to install one in my ’33 Plymouth. I’d already mounted a 6v positive ground to 12v negative ground inverter under the dash to run a cell phone charger and it has a lot more capacity than needed to run a dash camera too. And I had a “hard wire kit” for installing a dash cam taken out of our old car. All I needed was a compatible GPS mount for the dash cam I have in the daily driver. Today I installed that.

The first test has the camera aimed a bit low. And YouTube seems to have cropped in an greatly reduced the resolution, but you can see my test at

 

https://youtu.be/RnQhnx1WqpM

 

The original is 1080p and is a lot clearer than the YouTube one.

[Plymouthy Adams]

looks very clear and crisp on my monitor....

[Dan Hiebert]

I hope we (U.S. drivers) don't find ourselves heading the direction where everyone is better off with a dash-cam.  There's a reason there are so many "Russians are Crazy" driving videos on YouTube - they have so much fraud and insurance scams over there that you're taking a chance not having a dash-cam.  (Although the videos sure make for good time killing, and thanking my stars I don't drive over there...)

[keithb7]

I drive a marked vehicle for the company I am employed by. I feel like I could use dash cam. The company safety department is pretty intense. I would sure love to shut down any possible implied blame real quick. A dash cam would do it. 

 

The issue for me is all the people hooked on heroine around here. They cruise neighborhoods with flashlights looking in vehicles at night, looking for quick easy objects to steal. To cover their required daily hit. A dash cam would be one more thing I’d have to pack in and out of the vehicle every day.  Otherwise it would be gone. 

 

Don’t get me started on vigilante methods. It happens and most of the time those protecting their personal property are charged. It seems our system up here in Canada is messed up in many ways. 

 

Back to dash cams. I think its a good idea. The topic reminds me of a saying. “If it weren’t for lawyers, nobody would need a lawyer”.

[TodFitch]

19 hours ago, keithb7 said:

The issue for me is all the people hooked on heroine around here. They cruise neighborhoods with flashlights looking in vehicles at night, looking for quick easy objects to steal. To cover their required daily hit. A dash cam would be one more thing I’d have to pack in and out of the vehicle every day.  Otherwise it would be gone.

 

Might not help if they don't know how little is it worth, but. . .

 

The dash cam I have has a mount that is semi-permanently attached to the windshield with really strong double side foam tape. The GPS version of the mount is a massive $12 if bought separately. The original box for the dash cam had two separate non-GPS mounts, so the cost of those is close to $0. And the way I've got the wires run under the interior trim in both cars that's not visible. The dash cam itself slides off the mount and could easily be brought into the house.

 

The setup takes enough windshield space on the '33 Plymouth that it is noticeable. But on the new car most people don't even notice I have one even if riding in the car as a passenger.

 

Basically the whole system is pretty discrete and the expensive part (a massive $80 to $100 depending on where you buy it) is easily brought into the house.